Coconut Oil – Your Best Natural Beauty Friend

Oh you’ve heard about it time and time again, but there is nothing like a little refresher now and again, right? This post was inspired for three reasons:

I thought my last post on coconut oil for beauty could use some updating

There is a new e-book on Coconut Oil for Beginners (it focuses on coconut oil’s variety of uses for health, weight loss, beauty, and recipes)

I had a wonderful guest post submission from the lovelies over at Lucy Bee Extra Virgin Fair Trade Coconut Oil

So, you know it’s a magnificent beauty oil, but how exactly do you use it to get the most benefits? Well, there are a great many ways. Helen from Lucy Bee has kindly laid out the best in coconut beauty basics in an easy to read guide below, while Coconut Oil for Beginners gives us a comprehensive overview of treatments ranging from Anti-Aging Super Night Cream to Coconut Oil Toothpaste!

Lucy Bee’s Coconut Oil Beauty Tips & Tricks

The best quality coconut oil is set to become a staple for anyone interested in a natural and healthy beauty regime. One of the first sensations you’ll experience is moisture without that greasy feel, so prevalent in commercial cosmetics.

Where can I use Coconut Oil?

Hair, skin, teeth and nails all benefit from the use of organic and Virgin cold pressed coconut oil. It’s important to check the label for these facts, the best quality is going to cost around $12 USD (8 – 10 GBP) for 500ml.

Eating Coconut Oil for Beauty?

LPN has long said that beauty comes from within – literally. Therefore, a natural diet and the addition of (a healthy amount of) coconut oil is great for using in your cooking, your raw food creations and even on your gluten-free toast. Because of its antioxidant properties, coconut oil is an anti aging helper internally too. There are a host of recipes (5 Chapters full) in the book Coconut Oil for Beginners – including both veggie and non-veggie meals – and is a great cooking oil (should you choose to cook with oil) as it has a high smoke point, keeping it stable at higher temperatures. Shop the book for only $3 USD for the Kindle Version!

Coconut Oil Hair Treatments

Coconut oil can be considered nature’s natural repair kit for multiple reasons, but a key component is coconut oil’s Lauric Acid content (also present in mother’s milk). This natural compound penetrates deep into the hair follicle, moisturizing on a level conditioners only dream of getting. The oil goes a long way, so just add a little to your fingertips and rub into your hair or scalp. It’s also ideal to use as a ‘hair mask’ if your hair is in need of some tender care. Some other coconut oil uses for hair include:

Revitalize damaged hair

Reduce frizzy hair

Encourage hair growth

Prevent split ends

Treat dandruff (it’s anti-fungal)

Coconut Oil on your Skin

Coconut oil is anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal but so gentle and moisturizing that it’s probably the best addition to your natural daily skin care routine. Use it to remove your eye-makeup, make your own body scrubs and enhance your cheekbones (high shine factor — this is a key ingredient in RMS beauty’s Living Luminizer). You’ll find plenty of anecdotal evidence concerning coconut oil in the treatment other skin issues including:

Using Coconut Oil on your Teeth

If you haven’t read LPN’s post on Oil Pulling, now is a good time to. It’s the practice of forcing oil between your teeth and ‘pulling’ back the oil, through your teeth. It’s a traditional way of maintaining oral health, as well as aiding in a full body detox.

Because of the anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial qualities of coconut oil, a certain amount of ‘oil-pulling’ can help keep your teeth clean, free from plaque and treat gingivitis. The added benefit is a pleasant aftertaste and sweeter breath.

Coconut Oil for Nail Health

Try rubbing a small amount of oil into your cuticles; the oil stimulates healthy new nail growth and can be used to treat painful hangnails.

Other Benefits of Coconut Oil

Coconut oil goes beyond the topical, it can also be used for treating a multitude of ailments internally. It’s a great help for aiding your digestion, boosting your immune system, regulating blood sugar and improving one’s thyroid function (helping with energy and metabolism).

Details to know about Coconut Oil

Coconut oil is a saturated fat (60% medium chain triglycerides, MCTs) – but don’t freak out – while it might not be a great diet supplement for those with high cholesterol (I am no doctor, so make sure that taking coconut oil is right for you), the MCTs bring the health benefits.

In terms of which coconut oil is best, try to look out for fair trade oils that come from areas such as the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. Also look out for cold pressed (or raw), organic and virgin. These ensure the purity of the product is of high quality. UK-based LPN’ers should check out Lucy Bee’s Raw, Organic, Virgin coconut oil, 500 ml for 9 GBP.

I read this in a blog: “The second red flag was the wording of the label. There is no such thing as “extra virgin coconut oil”. It is either refined coconut oil or virgin coconut oil. A friend of mine who is the owner of a company that is a quality purveyor of virgin coconut oil had this to say:

“… any product that uses the term ‘extra virgin’ and it does not pertain to olive oil is using the term outside its definition… Trying to market something that does not exist.”

So, what’s the deal with this “Extra Virgin Coconut Oil” from Lucy Bee. Can you explain the above statement? Is it true? or What is really the difference?

Your friend is right, while there is no regulatory meaning that defines “Extra Virgin” from “Virgin”(like in the Olive Oil industry – as this has to do with acidity levels), I believe Lucy Bee was using it to describe the way their coconut oil is pressed, to ensure that is is not mistaken for anything other than raw and pure. I will shoot them an email to see if they have any thoughts on the topic and invite them to comment – I appreciate you raising the question.

You are totally correct. At the moment, unlike olive oil
there is no official definition for “Extra” to be used in relationship to
virgin coconut oil. We are not misleading people. We believe that by using Lucy
Bee you are getting significant extras.

When we started Lucy Bee we had a number of key objectives
to supply the best quality coconut oil possible at the most competitive
price. We wanted to make a quality
product available to everyone not just a few.

We were also insistent that any coconut oil we supplied
would fulfill the following:

It would be

Organic

We totally buy into the need to protect our individual health
and the health of the planet by following organic ways of production and
avoiding pesticides and intensive farming practices.

Raw

Being organic is only one part of the quality of a product
like coconut oil. It is important for us that the product is raw. That when being produced the utmost care is taken
to ensure that only low temperatures are used so that all the goodness and
nutrition is maintained.

Fair Trade

For too long the wealthy West has exploited the producers in
Third World countries. By buying Fair
Trade we want to properly reward the small local farmers and provide funds for
local community projects. Our first
shipment helped drill a fresh water well for the local deprived community. Before the well, they had to walk 2 miles to
get clean drinking water. Future
projects involve proper housing, scholarships for kids, electric lighting in
homes. Lucy Bee pays a premium for its coconut
oil that goes to the local farmers and local communities for social projects.
We then give 0.75% of our sales to the Fair Trade body.

Packed In Environmentally
Sound Packaging

We would only ever use glass jars. Plastic, which has been
implicated in long term health problems and is littering the earth, would never
be considered. Our display trays would
be manufactured from recycled paper.

To encourage reuse of the jar we use easy peel labels.

Bottling

Lucy Bee is bottled in Manchester in the highest possible
certified bottling plant and we are totally able to guarantee the integrity of
the product.

Testing

Every import of raw Lucy Bee coconut oil is subjected to a
number of tests to confirm its purity, its oil content and that it is totally lactose
and gluten free.

We also conduct shelf life testing on each batch and check
for bacterial and funguses

Thanks for the well thought out response, Helen. Hopefully this helps to answer the below questions! xx

Dee XO

Hi Kate, I’m super impressed with your blog – I’m only starting out but I’ve just converted to a clean, green way of life and have started with coconut oil – love, love, love it! I use it for shaving my legs too and my boyfriend uses it for hair gel. I see that you’re a great advocate for organic companies – however a lot of these products are very expensive! Have you ever tried making your own products?

Blakely

I use coconut oil for everything! After I started washing my face with it, my skin is better than it has been with any other cleanser and moisturizer, and I am acne prone. I recently started working it through my hair and leaving it for an hour before showering and noticed a serious improvement in my normally dry/frizzy hair. Is there a reason why virgin coconut oil is better than regular? Thanks

Its certainly true and precise. Thanks for this information, it is very helpful and true. Coconut oil certainly has a lot of benefits to our health. Its not only something used for cooking but even in beauty regimen and also maintaining optimum health. We also have here more health benefits of the coconut oil. Visit us here https://www.oilbenefits.org/

Hi
Thank you for sharing such a correct information. I have recently a coconut oil for eating from a organic marketplace. Here is the oil Buy Organic Coconut oil
Can you tell me is it suitable for cooking? Since someone told me coconut oil is quite good for health of small children and i bought it for my smaller sister and also if possible difference between Virgin coconut oil & Organic coconut oil?

Hi Tishya! I am not sure about that particular one – but if it is sold as a grocery item and “organic / cold pressed” it should be fine. Organic means it has been harvested and farmed organically, virgin is how it is processed (without heat or chemicals) xx